Shoichi Yokoi - Guam Police Transcripts Page 2

Yokoi's Clotheshibiscus fiber

Talofofo Fallsnear Yokoi Cave

A tailor when he was conscripted in 1941, Sergeant Shoichi Yokoi said he wove
cloth from tree bark fibre from Guam's pago/hibiscus trees and made himself trousers and a jacket. He
used a pair of scissors he had through the war to tailor the clothes and
to cut his hair. He was heavily bearded. Besides the scissors, the only
things he kept from his days as a soldier were a waistband embroidered by
his mother and a Japanese flag, both of which he had hidden in the cave.

Present during the interview were Guam Police Director J.C. Quintanilla, Guam Governor
Carlos G. Camacho, Major P.A. Camacho, Lieutenant M.C. Cruz, Guam American Red
Cross Representative, Immigration & Naturalization Representatives and
Pacific Daily News Reporters. After the interview, Sergeant Yokoi was
transported to Guam Memorial Hospital by Dept Public Safety-1 ambulance
for physical examination. Doctors at Guam Memorial Hospital said his blood
pressure, heart and pulse were normal, but he appeared to be anaemic, as
result of his salt-free diet. Sergeant Yokoi is the third former Japanese
soldier to be found on Guam long after the war. Two others were
discovered 16 years prior to 1972.

On january 25, 1972, the Guam Police organized a search party to
search the hiding place of Sergeant Yokoi and the hiding place where
Sergeant Yokoi's companions died. The search party left Talofofo Village
in police jeeps as far as the end of a long dirt road through a crude map
drawn by Sergeant Yokoi. After about two hours walk from where the police
jeeps were parked, Sergeant Yokoi's cave was found. About twenty minutes
walk from Sergeant Yokoi's hiding place was the cave where his companions
died.

Sergeant Yokoi's hiding place is on a little bamboo grove on the side
of a rolling slope which ended in a small stream. The entrance to the
shaft of the tunnel was cleverly concealed. Bamboo slats were tied over
the top and bamboo leaves scattered covering the opening of the shaft.

The shaft is about 20 inches wide and a drop of about 8 feet. The
tunnel runs about 10 feet deep southwest. His stove, toilet and resting
place were photographed and many homemade implements were found and seized.

On January 27, 1972, the search party returned to the tunnel with
U.S. Naval Magazine Bomb Disposal Team. Two japanese handgrenades were
dismantled and a 155mm American shell was removed from a second tunnel
where Sergeant Yokoi's companions died.

On the same day, Detective Scharff again explored the same tunnel and
found the bones and skulls of the two companions lying close side by side.
Bones and skulls were turned over to Dr. Orlando Varona for study.

Sergeant Yokoi was hosted at the Government House by Governor and
Mrs. Carlos G. Camacho. Admiral Paul Pugh, commander Naval Forces
Marianas paid a visit to Sergeant Yokoi at the hospital. On Jan 27, 1972,
Mr. Kazunari Nakamura, director of Repatriation of the Ministry of Health
and Welfare and Mr. Masato Abe, assistant to Mr. Nakamura, arrived in
Guam via Japan Self-Defense plane.

On February 2, 1972, at 12:00 Noon, Sergeant Yokoi departed Guam via
Japan Special Flight, accompanied by Messrs. Nakamura, Abe and Japanese
TV and News Reporters and Photographers. The remains of the two
companions of Sergeant Yokoi were taken back to Japan on the same flight.
He brought back his army-issue rifle, which he said he wanted to return
to "the honorable Emperior," adding "I am sorry I did not serve his
majesty to my satisfaction." Yokoi said he was from a village in Aichi
prefecture, but when officials checked they found that his home town had
been amalgamated in Nagoya, Japan's third largest city. Officials at the
relief bureau there found his name listed in proper Japanese
"alphabetical" order in a list of the prefecture's 98,000 war dead. He
was listed as having been killed Sept. 30 1944. In November 1972, Yokoi
married 44 year
old Mihoko and return to Guam for his honeymoon. He has returned to Guam
several times over the years.

Yokoi traveled around Japan giving lectures on survival topics and
even starred in television special, "Yokoi and the Seven Beauties," in
which he taught Japanese women about the art of survival. He ran
unsuccessfully for the House of Councillors - Parliament's upper house -
in 1974.